Snowfalls, Mistletoes and Jealous Lilys
by lightningscarpotter
Summary: "Merlin's pants, I love James Potter!" Lily exclaimed, still in deep shock. Lily is jealous and this leads to an astounding discovery. What happens after that? And why is Sirius always singing? A story of how Lily and James got together after all the drama and humour that follows the Marauders everywhere with Christmas just around the corner.
1. Exploding Snap with the Marauders

**A/N : **This is my first fanfic and I'm very excited to share it. I had a lot of fun writing it and hope you enjoy reading it just as much. If i get a good response, I'll immediately update the next chapter. It is already written and waiting to be published. As is most of the story. I love James and Lily and hope I did justice to their fantastic characters.

**Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter. But I love it very very very very very much. **

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Lily Evans was all alone in her dormitory. Unless you count her friend Mary Macdonald who was sleeping off a headache. Her friends Vera Adams and Alice Stewart were both Merlin knows where with their boyfriends. She was reading her charms book. Even though she already knew everything in that book, she didn't want to take chances during her seventh year. She didn't even have patrol that day. Being Head Girl, she had to patrol only on weekends and Mondays. Too bad, she thought, James would have lifted by boredom within minutes.

Lily smiled at the thought of the Head Boy, James Potter. She still remembered the time when she couldn't stand the sight of him. How she detested his arrogance and his constant attempts to ask her out. By the end of fifth year, she couldn't stay in the same room without exploding. But something changed in the middle of their sixth year. James was just a little more mature, a little less of an arrogant toe-rag. The frequency of offers to date her reduced. They became closer and closer and they parted for summer at the end of sixth year as very good friends.

When she walked in to prefect's compartment on September 1st, wearing her Head Girl badge proudly, she was surprised to find James as the Head Boy. But she didn't doubt his qualities as much as she would have even a year back. Taking both of them by surprise, she congratulated him and they carried on with their duties without word about Dumbledore's obvious mistake. Their friendship strengthened as they spent more and more time together and now James was one of the most important people in her life. As were the rest of the Marauders.

James hadn't completely matured of course. How could he with Sirius Black as his best friend? Hogwarts wouldn't be the same without occasional pranks by the Marauders. James still got into detention. But these things never bothered Lily anymore. Even his habit of running his hand through his hair was now endearing. James was still a kid most of the times but when it really mattered, he could step up and be mature toe-rag ( as opposed to an immature toe-rag)

Lily was pulled back to reality when Mary suddenly called out "Unicorns!" and promptly went back to sleep. Chuckling softly, Lily gave up on re-reading her book and decided to find solace for her boredom in the Marauders's dormitory.

Lily walked up the stairs to the boys' dormitories and stopped outside the Marauders' dorm. She wasn't surprised to hear the loud noises coming through the doors. She knocked twice and waited a few seconds before opening the door and entering without invitation. She closed the door behind her.

Three out of the four Marauders were sitting on one of the beds playing exploding snap and laughing. They looked up when they heard the door close and, seeing that it was Lily, smiled widely at her.

"Flower!" Sirius exclaimed, coming to greet her with a tight hug, "What brings you here at this hour? Looking for James?" he asked, eyebrows wiggling and a smirk on is face.

Lily laughed. "I was actually looking for you. You know my heart belongs only to you."

Grinning, Sirius led her towards the bed where Remus and Peter were sitting.

"Hello Remus. Hi Peter."

"Hello Lily." they chorused.

"I hope I'm not interrupting. All my friends decided that today should be spent only with their boyfriends and not with their best friends."

"What about Mary? Last I checked, she didn't have a boyfriend." said Remus.

"Oh she has a slight headache. She went to the hospital wing for some medicine and went to bed early."

"Is she alright?" Remus looked worried.

"Yes Remus, she is fine" Lily said, smiling to herself at his concern for her friend.

"Where's James?" she asked.

"Detention." replied Sirius.

"Oh." she was disappointed. "How come you aren't with him?"

"McGonagall decided that we weren't learning our lessons by serving detentions together. I have mine tomorrow."

He looked so offended it was comical.

"If you ask me, she did the right thing. You guys were just using detentions to cook up more pranks." Remus said, smirking.

Sirius huffed. "No one asked your opinion Moony."

Remus rolled his eyes and turned to Lily.

"Join us for exploding snap. We'll stack the deck again."

Lily nodded and went to sit next to him on the bed. Playing with the Marauders and laughing at all their silly jokes, Lily didn't notice time fly by. They were more intent of talking nonsense than actually playing. She was practically rolling on the bed with laughter. In the middle of a conversation about wizard singers, out of the blue, Sirius decided that he must starting singing immediately. And he started belting out the lyrics of Celestina Warbeck's "You charmed the heart right out of me" at the top of his voice. And the fact that he was terribly off-tune didn't help the others control their laughter.

"Oh, my poor heart, where has it gone?" he sang.

"It's left me for a spell." Remus suddenly joined in.

"And now you've torn it quite apart!" All of them were singing now.

"I'll thank you to give me back my heart!" they finished in a high lingering note and immediately dissolved into fits of laughter. It took a long time for all of them to get a grip on themselves. When Lily finally took a deep breath and was sure that she wasn't going to start laughing all over again, she glanced at her watch and was surprised to note that it was already nine.

"Shouldn't James be back by now?" she asked, looking at Sirius.

Sirius looked at his watch too. "Yeah, he should have been back ages ago actually. Hold on, let me check the Map." he said, referring to the Marauder's Map.

He took out a worn looking parchment and opened it. Pointing his wand at it, he muttered "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." Immediately, black lines appeared on the parchment, twisting and turning like little snakes till the entire map of Hogwarts stared back at them with thousands of tiny dots that showed where each and everyone was. Sirius started to scan the map to find the dot of his best friend.

"Aha!" he said, several seconds later, his finger on a particular section of the map. "He's in the library."

"What's he doing in the library?" Lily asked, peering at where he was pointing. Sure enough, James was sitting in the library. But he wasn't alone. A strange sensation settled in Lily's stomach, one she couldn't understand, when she saw a dot labeled "Olivia Smith" next to James.

Olivia Smith was one of the chasers of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. She was a seventh year and stayed in the dorm next to her own. Olivia had never liked Lily much and Lily was only happy to return the favor. Her friends got along with neither Olivia nor her friends.

Olivia was from an old pure-blood family. She was tall, taller than Lily, with straight blond hair and beautiful violet eyes. She had soft features and was considered by almost everyone as one of the most beautiful girls in Hogwarts. But she was no dumb blond. Unlike the expectations of most people, she was very smart. She never got less than an E in all her assignments and rare As in transfiguration. She knew exactly how to make a guy fall for her. And she never did that by just batting her eyelashes and pouting her lips. She was charming and smart. But she didn't have too many people in the trail of broken-hearts she had left behind. She was incredibly picky about the boys she dated. It was common knowledge among girls that the one she really wanted to date was James. Which was why she hated Lily for having being the object of James' affection for so long.

"Well," she said, "looks like he is busy." Her voice was slightly squeaky and she couldn't understand why. Maybe she had a sore throat.

Remus and Sirius were frowning at the map. But sensing Lily's discomfort, they soon masked their expressions.

"Let's just continue to play. He sucks at this game anyway." Sirius said, smiling at Lily.

"We aren't even playing properly Sirius." Lily said, trying and failing to sound happy. All the joy in the air seemed to have disappeared in just minutes.

"That's alright. That's how we always play anyway." he said.

Lily nodded. Soon, the earlier atmosphere of childish abandon and glee returned though Lily's thoughts kept returning to the hazel eyed Marauder who was in the library with a girl who wasn't her. Her laughs shorter and smiles feeble. After about half-an-hour of not waiting for James to return (No, she wasn't waiting for him), she decided it was late enough to go back to her dorm.

"I better go. I'm sure the girls would be back by now."

The boys nodded and wished her goodnight.

"Good night guys." She smiled at them and walked to the door. She opened the door and was surprised to see James standing with his hand going up, as if to open the door.

He was surprised to see Lily there.

"Hi Lily." he said.

"Hi James," Lily replied. "I was just leaving. Good night."

She walked past him and down the stairs without waiting for a reply.

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**A/N : **This is it. Hope it was a good start and you will continue to read the story. Please leave a review and tell me where I can improve the story. The next chapter should be up in a few days.


	2. Late night conversations with friends

A/N : Thank you for everyone who reviewed and added the story to you favourites and alerts! I can't thank you enough!

Here is the second chapter! I hope that was soon enough. I can't go sooner than that! This came out much longer than i expected. I tried to make it as funny as I could.

alicenotinwonderland told me i should have added a little bit of an explanation so i went back and added it in the first chapter. Thank you for the advice!

I'll give a brief context for the story here. This story is set in their seventh year a little more than a week before Christmas vacation starts. James and Lily are Head Boy and Head Girl and, against all odds, they are now friends.

**Disclaimer - I regret to say that these wonderful characters are not mine but they belong to wonderful the J K Rowling. Except Vera and Olivia. They are mine, mine, mine! **

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James walked into the dorm. The others barely paid him any attention as they had started another round of Exploding Snap.

"What was Lily doing here?" James asked, joining them on the bed.

"Just hanging out. Her friends were all busy so she came here." Remus said, his eyes not straying from his cards. "How was detention?"

"Terrible. I had Filch today and he made me clean the entire Trophy Room. It was torture." James exclaimed.

"Served you right to listen to Sirius instead of me." Remus said.

"You know that reminds me." Sirius said, "We should start planning the Christmas prank. There's only one week left for Christmas. We can't let the students go home without witnessing an awesome Marauder's prank!"

"I agree. I'm starting to feel like a respectable and responsible boy." James said, shuddering as if being respectable and responsible was the worst thing he could be.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing you know. You _are_ a Head Boy." Remus said.

Sirius put his arm around Remus' shoulder and said, "Come on Moony, you don't really mean that. How can a Marauder be respectable and responsible?"

Remus rolled his eyes at that.

Sirius continued. "Frankly, I have no idea how you are always so... gentlemanly. And you are so studious! You read the textbook the day before the exams!" The tone he used suggested that he clearly thought it was a capital offense.

"It is our NEWTs year. It's about time we concentrate on studies."

Sirius' eyes went wide with disbelief and he stared at Remus as if his mother just announced that she had been in Hufflepuff during her Hogwarts year.

Remus rolled his eyes again. He was scared that his eyes would someday freeze like that if he continued to call these idiots his friends.

"At least I know the difference between a Pepper-Up Potion and a Colour-Change Potion." Remus said, wearing a smug look on his face.

Sirius looked incredibly offended. "Low blow, Remus. Low blow."

He always tried to forget the day he had snuck into the Potions classroom to steal some Pepper-Up Potion before a Quidditch match during sixth year. He had had a cold and had been trying to avoid Pomfrey and the risk of being forbidden from playing the next day. He had known that Pepper-Up potion was yellow. He found two potions that were yellow in Slughorn's cabinet. One was a pale yellow while the other was a bright yellow. Feeling confidant that Pepper-Up was bright yellow, he took the vial and went back to his dorm. None of the other Marauders were there so no one stopped him when he downed the entire bright yellow potion in a single swallow. He was surprised when he didn't feel the burn in his throat and didn't have steam coming out of his ears. He wondered for a second whether he took the wrong potion, but the thought of him being wrong about something was so absurd to him that he quickly dismissed the thought. Deciding that he probably had a diluted version of the potion or something, he went to sleep.

The next day when he woke up, James caught sight of him and started laughing. Sirius, confused at first, realized to his horror that his skin was now a bright shocking pink. When Remus saw this, he took the vial, which still had traces of the potion in it, and examined it. Even he dissolved into fits of laughter. He controlled him enough to declare that the potion that had been in the vial was not Pepper-Up but a Colour-Change potion. The memory of playing Quidditch in front of the entire school with bright pink skin still made Sirius shudder.

He was brought back from the nightmarish flashback when a hand hit him on the back of his head.

"Ouch! What the bloody hell was that for Prongs?"

"For spiking my pumpkin juice with the same potion during dinner."

"I only did that because you made banners that read "A Barbie as the Beater"!"

"Oh yeah, I remember that." James said, laughing at the memory, "I covered the entire school with them, didn't I?"

All of them laughed at that memory. Even Sirius couldn't help but join it.

"Who makes a potion that changes the skin colour anyway?" Sirius said.

Exactly at that time, Peter lost the game and his card exploded. When the smoke cleared, Peter's face was covered in soot and his eyebrows were singed off. The Marauders laughed harder at this. Even Peter didn't seem too unhappy about losing was laughing just as hard.

"Well I think that's enough for today. Let's turn in." Remus said in between laughs.

The others nodded. They took turns to go to the bathroom and changed into their nightwear.

Once James was dressed in his blue snitch pajamas, he snuck under the warm covers. The Marauders continued to talk but soon, Remus and Peter both fell asleep.

"Padfoot?" James called out into the darkness.

"Hmm?"

"Was it just me or did Lily seem upset when she left today?"

Sirius paused, wondering what to say. He was pretty sure that Lily wouldn't want James to know that she had been jealous of Olivia.

"You are just imagining things. She was just tired. She did sing with us."

"Lily was singing?" James was surprised to hear that.

"We all were. It was fun."

"I should have come here straight after detention. Who knows when I'll get an opportunity to hear her sing again?"

"It looked like you were busy. We saw you on the map with Olivia Smith."

"Oh yeah. I ran into her on the way back. She was on her way to the library. She asked me if I could teach her transfiguration as she had trouble with this week's homework. I didn't know I was going to miss Lily singing so I agreed."

"Are you going to ask Lily out again?"

"No. She is finally talking to me like a friend. Sometimes like as if I'm her best friend. I don't want to risk it by asking her out. The best I can hope for is that she does fall in love with me and tells me that herself."

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Meanwhile, Lily entered her dormitory and found her best friends Alice Stewart, Mary Macdonald and Vera Adams sitting on one of the beds. Vera and Alice looked like they were in a another one of their pointless debates while Mary looked on in amusement.

"Hey guys," Lily said, smirking when she didn't get a reply from anyone but Mary.

Vera and Alice were arguing over who had the better boyfriend today. Vera was just describing in detail the politeness that her boyfriend, Scott Turner, showed on their previous date in Hogsmeade. They were so involved in their argument that they barely acknowledged Lily. Mary shook her head, still amused at her friends antics, and beckoned Lily to sit next to her.

Vera had just finished her monologue when Mary decided to cut in before Alice took over.

"Guys! Don't you think this is pointless? You know that if Remus asks me out, I would have the best, politest and sensible boyfriend of all of us?"

Alice and Vera both couldn't argue with that. In spite of being a Marauder, Remus was the most mature boyfriend a girl could get. Mary smiled in victory when neither Vera not Alice could think of a suitable comeback. Lily couldn't help laugh as both of them huffed in defeat.

"You do realize you guys are arguing about something pointless again right?" Lily asked. "And you even woke Mary to join your debate."

"I was already awake when they came back. Where were you?" Mary asked.

"I was with the Marauders. I couldn't just sit here and read the charms book again."

"Hoping to catch a glimpse of James?" Vera asked, winking at her.

Lily blushed but shook her head. She suddenly remembered that James had been in the library with Olivia and she again left the irrational pull in her stomach.

"He wasn't there. He was in the library with Olivia." she told her friends, her mouth turned down in a frown.

"Olivia? As in Olivia Smith?" Alice asked, shocked.

Lily nodded.

"Oh Lily," Mary said, putting her arm around Lily. "Are you alright?'

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Aren't you jealous?" Vera asked bluntly, never the one to dilly-dally around topics.

"Why should I be jealous? James can spend his time with anyone he chooses to. It doesn't concern me." Lily said, her tone indicating that no one better disagree with her.

"Come on Lily. You and James have become very close over the last few months, what with your Head duties and patrols. You guys spend every second you can with each other. And now Olivia has suddenly entered the picture and you are telling us you don't feel the least bit jealous?" Vera demanded.

"I'm not jealous Vera. Sure I don't like the Olivia part of it but as I said, James has the right to be with anyone he wants to be with."

Vera opened her mouth to argue but Alice restrained her with a look. Vera sighed and decided to let the topic drop. But she looked like all she wanted to do was shake Lily by the shoulders till she realized that she was in love with James Potter.

Mary decided it would be best if the topic was changed so she said, "Since everyone of us are going to Slughorn's Christmas party this Friday, have you decided what to wear?"

And soon the topic turned to dresses and Lily slowly forgot about James and Olivia. Vera started imitating Slughorn praising Lily and soon everyone was laughing hard and forgetting about everything else. Alice started to tease Mary that she might have to ask Remus to Slughorn's party because he was chickening out every time he tried to ask her. They soon started recounting the stories of "Remus's failed attempts to ask Mary out" and that had them laughing well into the night.

It was midnight when Alice checked her watch and they all agreed that they better call it a night. Lily changed into her pajamas and slid under her covers. Soon, all of them fell asleep but Lily was still awake, thinking of James with Olivia and wondering why it bothered her so much. She liked the idea of them lesser in the quiet of the night with nothing to distract her. It look a very long time for her to finally fall into an uneasy sleep.

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A/N : So this is it! I hope you like it and I hope the context of the story is clearer. And that you liked the addition for the 1st chapter. Again I thank the people who like this story. Please leave reviews to let me know where else i can improve the story!


	3. Love potions and jealousy

A/N : I'm sorry for the delay on this chapter! It came out much longer than i expected and needed editing. It's still very long though. But i hope you enjoy it! :) And it's not that funny but hopefully still entertaining and interesting!

Thank yous to everyone who reviewed, put this story on your list of favourites or alerted it! And thank you FreeElfDobby for being my beta!

**Disclaimer : I'm still not J K Rowling... if i was, and if these characters had belonged to me, I would have made James marry me. **

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The great hall was half-empty when the girls entered it the next morning. They knew they were late but it didn't matter much since none of them were hungry. Only Alice grabbed a piece of toast and soon they were on their way to their first class, Transfiguration. The day started and continued as usual with the teachers piling them with homework. Lily and her friends went from class to class, complaining about the work-load.

But Lily noticed something new that day. It seemed like every time she saw James between classes, he was with Olivia. She saw them walking together, with his friends joining sometimes or trailing behind them, and Lily couldn't help notice that James seemed to be enjoying her company. She didn't know they had become so close. As far as she knew, Olivia was always just a team mate. They hardly exchanged pleasantries except while talking about game strategies. But today, Lily thought, it's like they had always been close friends. Lily knew that there was a possibility that it might be nothing, that were probably discussing their match against Slytherin next week. But it bothered her and it was frustrating that she didn't know why.

Even during lunch, Olivia and her friends sat close enough to the Marauders so they could talk. Alice wanted to sit with her boyfriend Frank so they were sitting faraway. But Lily had a clear view of the Marauders, all of them laughing at the things Olivia and her friends said. Every time she saw them, she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach and she felt angry at Olivia. And it was frustrating her that she couldn't put a name or reason to that feeing. She hadn't exchanged a single word with James since morning and that added to her disgruntlement.

Things continued this way till the last class. They had Potions with Slytherins and Lily was grateful for the fact that Olivia was not in the NEWTs Potions class.

The dungeons were colder than usual and Lily tightened her Gryffindor scarf around her. She and her friends were the first ones in.

"Good morning, Ms Evans," Slughorn boomed, smiling at Lily as she passed him on her way to their usual seats in the front.

Lily smiled back at him and wished him good morning, taking her seat.

It didn't take long for the class to get filled up. Very few people had got the necessary marks to advance to NEWT level Potions. Lily, her friends, the Marauders minus Peter, and Frank Longbottom, Alice's boyfriend, were the only ones from Gryffindor. Snape and one of his friends Avery and two other Slytherin girls made up the rest of the class.

"Good morning!" Slughorn said, smiling genially at the entire class, "I think you will enjoy today's class very much. We will be brewing Amortentia today."

He paused to let it sink in. Sirius was smirking and James and Remus were trying hard not to burst out laughing. Lily, knowing how difficult it was to brew Amortentia, smiled at the challenge. Seeing Lily's confident smile, her friends quickly grew worried about that day's class.

"As you all know," Slughorn continued, "Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world and very difficult to brew. I hardly expect every single one of you would succeed today. But it is important to have attempted it once before your final exams. And maybe one of will succeed today."

Vera swore later that Slughorn stared for a very long time at Lily with pride shining in his face after saying that.

"You will be working in pairs today. So team up and start working. The instructions are on page 213 in your books. Use the next two hours you have to your advantage."

There was a scuffle of sudents pairing up and hurrying to get their ingredients. Lily turned to her friends but Mary and Vera had already decided to work together and were looking guiltily at Lily.

"Sorry," they mouthed.

Lily rolled her eyes at them. She turned and saw Alice already starting a fire with Frank. She certainly wasn't going to work with Snape. That left her with one of the Marauders. She turned to them only to realize James was facing the same problem as her. She saw Sirius grab Remus' hand and drag him to get the ingredients, James scowling at their backs. She approached James and placed her hand on his shoulder. He turned and, seeing her, smiled down at her.

"Looks like we are stuck together," she said, smiling.

"Your friends too huh?" James said, still smiling, and ran his hand through his hair, making it more messy.

Lily nodded. "Some friends we have huh? Abandoning us like this," Lily said as they went to gather the ingredients.

"I'm not surprised. Sirius has always been a pain and I don't expect he will ever change," James said, his tone teasingly light.

His tone warmed Lily's heart. Even before James matured and cleaned up his act, Lily had always grudgingly admitted that if James Potter had one redeeming quality, it was his intense sense of loyalty and friendship. In fact, all the Marauders had that. No one ever doubted that they would do anything for each other. Sirius was always supported when he was having trouble with his family. Lily knew all about how Sirius now lived in James' house after he ran away from his house, not being able to stand their prejudiced ways. Remus was never shunned away when his secret was discovered. Instead, the others had worked hard to become animagi just so they could accompany him on full moon nights. Lily had been both proud and angry at James the night she found out. It was not a surprise though. She already knew they would risk their lives for a friend. No one lost their patience with how slow Peter was unless they wanted the wrath of the Marauders raining down on them. And James could never have gotten over his uncle's death last year the beginning of the term if not for his friends.

"Would you want him to?" Lily asked, laughing lightly.

James just smiled in reply.

They placed all their ingredients on the table and started a fire underneath their cauldron. As they started cutting and mixing ingredients according to the instructions, they struck up a light conversation. Lily still couldn't believe how easy it was to talk to James. He made her laugh easily and she always forgot the world when he talked. It was like only they existed. His hazel eyes always twinkled brightly when he was telling a funny story and the corners of his mouth were always turned up. His hair fell messily on his forehead and he had the (now endearing) habit of constantly running his hand through them.

"... and then Mum found out Dad was helping us by teaching us some excellent spells. Our neighbour's cat was flashing different colours one second and had all his hair stand up straight like spikes on its back. Our neighbour, Mrs Mitchell, was cursing loudly but she didn't know it was us. And Sirius thought it would be funny to turn into a dog and start scaring the now neon blue cat. The cat went crazy and trampled all over her precious rhododendron bushes. "

Lily was giggling almost uncontrollably now. James was using the 15 minutes they had to watch the potion boil to recount stories of his summers with Sirius.

"Mum was livid when she found out of course," James continued, chuckling, "Started screaming at all of us. Started to say she would never feed us again. Ever. But we could hardly pay any attention because Dad was trying hard not to burst out laughing and we were trying hard not to look at Dad. And when my Mum started to say that she would starve us all, my dad got this sparkle in his eyes and he suddenly went forward and kissed her. We were shocked. Mum went completely red, as red as her hair, and started stuttering. My dad smiled smugly at us and put his hand around her shoulder and led her away, back into the house."

Lily laughed harder at this, leaning on the table to control herself.

"Well now I know where you get your mischievous streak from," Lily said, still giggling uncontrollably.

"What can I say Lily? Potters know how to have fun," he said, winking at her.

"Looks like it," Lily said, her laughter dying down into occasional chuckles. James beamed at her and glanced at their potion.

"Looks like our potion is ready. Now all we have to do is let it cool till it gets a Mother-of-pearl sheen?"

Lily nodded as she put out the fire.

"What do you think you will smell?" she asked, turning to James.

"I dunno.. Probably roses. Mum loves roses and she spends all her time amongst the roses by Dad planted for her."

"Your dad planted roses for her?"

James nodded. "Half our garden is filled the ones he planted. It was a welcome home gift when they first brought the house. Dad surprised her. She has been in love with them since."

"That is so romantic," Lily breathed.

And suddenly, Lily wondered whether James would also do something like that for the girl he loved. And she immediately knew he would. He was the kind who went in the middle of the night in search of treacle tarts and butterbeers if it makes the girl he loves happy. She didn't know why she felt so happy at that realization.

"I think it's done," James said, jerking her out of her thoughts. She looked at the potion and saw that he was right. Characteristic swirls were coming up from the surface of the potion and Lily was immediately drawn to the smell. James slowly tipped some into a flask and nodded at Lily.

"Professor Slughorn!" Lily called out to get the attention of their potions master. Slughorn turned around and, seeing Lily's hand up in the air, made his way towards their table.

"We finished brewing, Professor," Lily said.

Slughorn smiled at her and looked at their potion. He examined it, giving it a stir, and breathed in the scent deeply. His face split into a huge smile.

"Wonderful!" he boomed, beaming at the two of them once his careful inspection was over. "Excellent job, Ms Evans, Mr Potter. Of course, I didn't expect anything less than this. Especially you my dear," he said, referring to Lily, "you are the best in this class after all."

Lily felt her cheeks getting warmer. She smiled shyly and thanked him for the compliment.

"Why don't you announce to the class what you smell. So that the will have an idea what to expect," Slughorn said, still beaming at Lily.

Lily looked at James, meeting his eyes and pleading him to go first.

"I smell," James said, inhaling the fumes emanating from their cauldron, "roses, the smell of the pitch after the rain and... I dunno what the third smell is," he quickly finished, his neck turning pink.

Lily sniggered, wondering what he could smell that was so obviously embarrasing. She knew he was lying about not knowing what the third smell was but decided to ask him later. She leaned forward now and inhaled the fumes of the potion.

"I can smell my mom's cherry perfume, the smell of books and … I think …. oranges?"

The last smell puzzled her. She couldn't place it with anyone or anything she knew. Sure she liked how oranges smell but surely not enough to smell it now. She glanced at James and was surprised to note that he seemed slightly shocked. Lily raised her eyebrow in question. But James didn't seem to notice. She heard sniggering and turned to see Sirius giving her a knowing look. Remus also seemed to be trying very hard not to smile.

Slughorn gave her another smile. "Well done, Ms Evans," he said. Lily wondered what was well done about smelling a potion. "You are coming to the Christmas Party tomorrow in my office?"

Lily nodded, her polite smile suddenly forced. But Slughorn didn't seem to notice. He just smiled jovially and moved away to check on the progress of Snape's potion.

"Don't worry Lily," said James, who had immediately noticed her forced smile, "I'm going too. So you will have plenty of company. Slughorn apparently made sure that I was absolutely free before he set the date. And unfortunately, it had to be for a party for which I need a date. I was wondering who to ask."

Lily had also been thinking about this. She had been thinking of asking James but she kept getting scared. She decided that she would ask him now since they were already on that subject.

"Olivia then came to my rescue," continued James, "She asked me yesterday whether I would go with her. Said she was invited too. So I told her yes. I figured at least if I go with her, I wouldn't be bored. Now I don't have to worry about asking anyone."

"What? Olivia? Olivia Smith? You are going to Slughorn's Christmas party with her?" Lily asked, her tone suddenly a little high, shocked and enraged again for reasons she couldn't explain.

"Yes," James said. He looked at her in concern. "Lily are you alright?"

Before Lily could reply, the bell rang. And Lily suddenly didn't want to stay in the room any longer with James. She grabbed her books and made a run for the door, not even caring to acknowledge her friends calling out her name. She didn't know where she was going. She didn't even understand why her eyes suddenly felt moist or why she didn't want to talk to anyone. She just walked, confused and angry, till she reached the front doors. She opened them and walked out into the cool evening air. Her feet took her to the edge of the lake and she threw her bag on the ground and slumped down.

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A/N : Oooh cliffhanger! Did you like it? Please leave a review to let me know what you thought. And to those Sirius fans out there, I can guarantee lots of Sirius and Lily friendship next chapter because I love it! :D (I'm not giving this tidbit to lure more readers. Nope. I'm not desperate)


	4. Realizations by the lake

A/N : This chapter took longer than I expected to update! But to me, it was worth it. I like this chapter very much and am really excited to see how you guys are going to feel about it! It is a bit long but I couldn't do much about it. It has a lot of Sirius-Lily friendship, which I think doesn't get the attention it deserves!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed and alerted my story so far! And everyone who added it to your favourites too. Without your encouragement, I couldn't have finished this chapter.

There was a mistake in the previous chapter about what Lily smells in the potion because I couldn't make up mind about what James should smell like. But now, I've stolen alicenotinwonderland's idea and decided on oranges! I have made the correction in the previous chapter. Thank you alicenotinwonderland for letting me steal your idea!

**Disclaimer : Nope, I'm not Jo. No matter how many nights I fall asleep wishing that I wake up as her.**

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Lily buried her head in her hands, trying to make sense of her tangled thoughts and understand the betrayal she felt. She kept picturing James laughing at Olivia's stupid jokes and wondered why she cared. What does it matter to her who James talked to? Why does it matter that James likes another girl? Was is because she didn't get along with Olivia? But she didn't mind so much that the other Marauders also seemed to be suddenly enjoying her company . But it bothered her that James seemed to like her. It bothered her a lot. And she couldn't figure out why.

These thoughts swirled around her mind and she couldn't make sense of them. Tears threatened to spill over at times but she didn't want to cry. Whatever it was that was bothering her, she didn't think it was worth crying. Crying showed helplessness and Lily Evans was not helpless in this situation. She was merely clueless.

She didn't know how long she sat there but soon the sun set over the lake and a crescent-shaped moon was making its way across the sky. Stars came out and decorated the night sky. But Lily was oblivious to the beauty. She knew her friends would be worried and even James maybe, if he wasn't too busy with Olivia. But she couldn't bring herself to face any of them yet.

Lily was becoming so used to the silence of the night that she was startled when she heard a twig break. Her head turned back immediately to see who it was. She didn't see anyone but she could have sworn she heard another twig snap. A thought occurred to her and her heart suddenly warmed.

"James?" she called out into the darkness.

She heard a swish and she saw the invisibility cloak revealing the person underneath. It was Sirius.

"Oh it's you," she said, her voice not hiding the disappointment very well, "You startled me."

Sirius didn't say anything but simply walked over to her and sat down beside her.

"For a second I thought you were.." Lily couldn't finish the sentence.

"James?" Sirius asked, smirking. "Don't worry Flower. I'm better looking than him any day!"

Lily didn't say anything. She just stared at the water.

"He was worried about you," he said, his voice surprisingly soft now, "Worried that you left so suddenly, wondering what went wrong and wondering whether he said something he shouldn't have. When your friends said they didn't know where you were either, he went a little berserk. He was ready to check the map and go searching for you even if you were at the other end of the forest. But Alice suddenly changed the story. Said you were ill and you were sleeping. Must have sensed you probably didn't want to talk to him. James was dumb enough to swallow the lie but he then started worrying about your health. Asked Alice and Mary all sorts of questions before he was satisfied. We dragged him down to dinner before he changed his mind and went charging up the girls' staircase to check on you," Sirius said, chuckling.

Lily didn't know how to respond to that. But Sirius didn't seem to expect a reply. He tilted his head up and leaned back on his arms and started to observe the stars. After long minutes of silence, Lily finally spoke.

"Where is he now?"

Sirius paused before answering carefully, "At the library. Teaching Smith Tranfiguration."

He looked at her to see her reaction. He saw pain and jealousy flash across her face. But she was strong. She didn't say anything.

"Lily," he called her, his voice still soft.

She turned to look at him. She was surprised to see the lack of mischief in his grey eyes. His handsome features were serious for once. She had seen this face only once or twice before. And she was pretty sure she was one of the very few people who had seen the side of him that this face represented.

Once he was sure he had her attention, Sirius started to speak.

"I remember first day of school. My mom kissed me and said that I would make a wonderful Slytherin and that she would be proud of me when I end up in that house. My dad was too proud to say anything nice but it was clear that even he expected me to end up in Slytherin. But I was scared. I didn't want to end up like the people in my family. I wanted to be in any house but Slytherin. I was scared that I was as bad as my family. But I didn't say anything. I just smiled and got into the train."

Lily didn't understand why Sirius was telling her all of this now. But she didn't interrupt him.

"Then I met James on the train," he continued, a small smile on his lips, "He knew for certain that he would be in Gryffindor. I had heard of the Potters. Knew they were as different from the Blacks as it is possible to be. And James, even though he knew I was a Black, seemed to sense that I was different. We immediately became friends. I got sorted into Gryffindor and I don't know who was happier about it, me or him. Remus joined our group the next day and Peter a week later after we saved him from some third-year Slytherins. You know how we soon became inseparable. James and I became best friends. We shared a passion for chaos and noise and we never need many words to communicate."

Sirius paused here to think. After a few seconds, he continued.

"I remember when we found out about Remus' furry-little problem. James was so sure that it didn't make a difference. It never made any difference to him. He was the one who told Remus that we knew about his lycanthropy. Convinced him that we don't see him any different because of it. He came up with the animagus idea. When he pitched it to us, he was so sure of himself, so confident that it wasn't that big a deal if it means helping a friend, that we immediately agreed. Remus protested of course but he never could convince us out of it."

Lily smiled at this. It didn't surprise her at all that these guys didn't even give it a second thought about helping their friend, no matter how dangerous.

"When I left my family last summer, I didn't hesitate before going to the Potters. I knocked on their door. James opened it, took one look at me and understood. He grinned at me and said 'Figured you would show up here earlier than planned. Your room is ready. Go easy on the posters of the muggle girls. Mum will throw a fit if she sees your new ones.' And just like that, I had a home."

Sirius was smiling widely at the stars now.

Lily always knew James was loyal and valued friendship above but hearing all this from Sirius, the guy who knew James better than anyone else in this world, made her like James even more.

"I remember the first time he noticed you. He always knew you of course but really noticed you in third-year. We were roaming around one day and we heard you from around the corner. You were screaming at someone. Your temper was already well known so we peeked around to see what was going on. You were arguing with three fifth-year Slytherins for harassing a poor first-year who was crying next to you. They looked angry enough to kill you on the spot. And you didn't seem scared that you were making enemies of burly fifth years with much more experience than you. James was staring at you in awe. One of them finally had had enough and raised his wand but thankfully McGonagall showed up just then. And what happened after that, even I was impressed. You started sniffling and told her that the boys were threatening and scaring you and the girl. You were so convincing that even we believed you were a helpless little girl. James was grinning widely by then. But what pushed him over the edge was you kneeling down by the girl after McGonagall left with the fifth years to punish them and you consoled her. Within two minutes, she was laughing and you wiped her tears and took her hand and walked her into the girls bathroom."

Lily interrupted for the first time. "You remember that? Even I had forgotten about it!"

"Hard to forget when that's all you heard James talk about for the next few days. He was staring at you with this crazy look on his face and said 'I'm gonna marry her someday.'" Sirius said, laughing " And a week later, he asked you out. He couldn't shut up about you. When he ran out of things to say about your qualities, he would start describing the colour of your eyes or your hair. Practically writing horrible poetry about them. I remember this one very vividly.. ' Roses are red and so is your hair. But I can't touch it and that's unfair. The sea is green, so are your eyes, everytime i look at them I feel so nice.' And in spite of all your rejections, he was always happy when he was around you."

"James was crazy enough to think that flirting and showing off would somehow make you swoon and that's exactly what he did. Many girls asked him out but he said no to all of them. He was confident that you would one day say yes. But after the lake incident with Snape, he somehow lost that hope. He tried to move on. Didn't work. So he matured. Our pranks became less harmless and more funny. He is still an idiot but a mature one. And he finally won your friendship. And slowly, he started becoming so hopeful that he hasn't dated anyone at all this year."

"Until Olivia," said Lily, bitterness returning to her voice.

"Until Olivia," he nodded.

"Why did you tell me all this, Sirius?"

"Because I don't like Smith. And I rather you were his girlfriend than her," he answered simply.

"Girlfriend? Are they dating now?"

Sirius hesitated before nodding, saying, "She asked him out to Hogsmeade. The trip after Slughorn's party. He said yes."

Lily's heart sank at these words. And she still didn't know why. A traitorous tear escaped her eye and slipped down her cheek. Sirius noticed it and put a consoling arm around her shoulder.

"I don't even know why it bothers me but its bothering me a lot. Why does it matter whether he dates her? Yes, I never got along with Olivia but so what ? I still don't get why it should upset me this much."

"Because you love James," Sirius said matter of factly, as if he was simply stating that it was a cold night.

But Lily didn't take it as casually as he seemed to. She sat up straight at those words and started wide-eyed at Sirius.

"I do not love James Potter!" she exclaimed a little too loudly.

"Come on Lily. Don't be daft. You have been in love with James for quite a while now."

"I have?" Lily squeaked.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "For a smart girl, you are incredibly dumb. Everyone has noticed the change in you Lily. You find excuses to talk to James and laugh at all his silly jokes. You always make sure you sit with us during meals. You stare at him with a small smile when you see him do something nice to someone and laugh more than the others when he pulls off a prank. And you are always hugging him. Seeking him out to simply talk. Ask him to sneak you into the kitchen late at night. And look at him starry-eyed when he is laughing like a maniac or acting like a complete goof."

Lily looked at him, her mouth open in shock.

"I don't do all that! We have just become very good friends that's all. Maybe I think about him more than I need to and notice all tiny little things about him that I don't notice in others. Just because I find it incredibly adorable when he helps out younger students, doesn't mean I love him. I just like that he cares that much about them. He maybe wonderful and adorable and dumb and handsome and maybe I do notice all this but that doesn't mean that I love him!"

Sirius was looking at her in amusement. Lily was frustrated to see him looking at her as if she was missing something obvious and that he found that incredible funny. No matter what he said, she isn't in love with James Potter. She doesn't love his adorable laugh or his endearing habit of running his hand through his hair. She doesn't love his soft messy black hair or his round glasses that kept sliding down his long nose. She doesn't love his huge hazel eyes behind those glasses and the way she could learn so much about him by just looking at them. She doesn't love the twinkle that is always present in those eyes and how she could never quite tell whether they were more green or golden. She doesn't love how he always makes her feel safe and how he always knows exactly how to cheer her up and she certainly does not love how he makes her forget all the bad things in this world and how he makes her think only of the beauty of this world and how he makes her feel like she should fight for it. She doesn't love his sense of loyalty and bravery and humour. She doesn't love his smile or his laugh.

She doesn't love that he sits next to her and patiently teaches her Transfiguration spells when she is frustrated and rude. She doesn't love the look of amusement on his face when he sees her reading while everyone else is lazing around. She does not love how he makes patrols less boring with all his wild stores. She doesn't love how he falls asleep doing homework sometimes and mumbles incoherently about Quidditch and Sirius' secret desire to dance ballet.

She doesn't love James Potter.

"Merlin's pants, I love James Potter!" she exclaimed, now in deep shock.

"What was your first clue?" Sirius smirked, amused by her late realisation.

Suddenly Lily panicked. She squeezed Sirius arm tightly. "I can't love James Potter!"

"Ouch Lily!" Sirius winced at her tight grip, "Why not? What is wrong with my best friend? He maybe a little dim-witted but he isn't that boring to hang out with. And I heard he is a fine kisser too. Not great but satisfactory."

"This isn't the time for jokes Sirius," Lily said and Sirius seem to realize Lily was genuinely panicking, "I'm in love with guy who used to be in love with me! I've fall in love with him after he has moved on! I'm in love with James Potter!"

"Lily calm down! You really are daft. James hasn't moved on. He is still in love with you."

Lily looked at him skeptically. "Of course he has moved on."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue but Lily cut him off, "He said yes to go out with Olivia."

Sadness laced her voice. She looked down at the ground between them and stared at a lonely grass sticking up. The feeling she could now name, jealousy, washed over her and she suddenly felt exhausted and unbelievably sad. It seemed cruel to her that she fell for the same guy who was in love with her for three years only after he moved on to Olivia-bloody-Smith.

"Lily," Sirus said softly, lifting her chin up with his fingers, "James still loves you. He may have stopped asking you out but he still loves you. Smith doesn't mean anything."

Lily shook her head, not believing him. She saw how much fun James was having with Olivia today. He must really like her to say yes only after talking to her properly for a day. Besides, Olivia was beautiful. She was tall and fair and incredibly pretty. Of course James likes her. Every boy in the castle liked Olivia. Well expect Sirius, Lily thought, but Sirius is not the one I'm in love with.

To her horror, she felt tears on her face. She quickly wiped at them and told herself to get a grip. It wasn't the end of the world. Sirius noticed her tears and sighed. He pulled her into a hug.

'You are so dumb Lily. James can't see you love him and you can't see he loves you. You guys drive me crazy. Tell him how you feel and then you will know I was telling the truth."

"No!" Lily screamed, sitting up straight, "James should never know. It would just make it awkward between us when he says he doesn't like me back. I don't want to lose his friendship too. Please don't tell him!"

"But Lily-" Sirius started.

"Please!" Lily said, looking up at him. Sirius saw her green eyes pleading with him, wet from the tears, and reluctantly agreed.

"Fine. But I will tell him if things go out of hand."

Lily nodded gratefully. She wiped her tears completely.

"Maybe we should head back to the castle," Sirius said. He glanced at his watch. "Blimey, its 9 already. Let's just grab a quick bite in the kitchen and head back the common room. Alice and Mary are worried about you."

Lily nodded and stoop up. When Sirius followed suit, she grabbed his arm to get his attention.

"I know you were planning on skipping it but could you please come with me to Slughorn's party? I wanted to ask James but.."

Sirius smiled at her. "Of course Lily. You didn't think I would abandon my sister, did you?"

Saying this he took Lily's bag and, draping it over his shoulder, took her hand and pulled her in the direction of the castle.

"Hey Lily. You will not believe who else got a date during dinner. Remus finally picked up the courage to ask Mary to Slughorn's Christmas party. It seemed like everyone is going to this Christmas party. Wonder what is so special about it..."

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A/N : So, what do you think? I really hope you liked it! I had a lot of fun writing it. Even though Sirius seemed less goofy and silly here, I still enjoyed writing this side of him a lot. Maybe I went a little overboard with it? Please share your thoughts!

I thank FreeElfDobby for giving me the 'horrible poem' :D Next time I want something silly, I'll come to you again :P


	5. Siriusness in the Great Hall

**A/N : **Um.. Sorry! I'm so so sorry for the long long wait! But i had writers' block and then my computer gave up on me and college started and then alicenotinwonderland's prediction came true! I just didn't have the time anymore! But I finally got around to writing this and here it is! This is just a light-hearted chapter, just a filler, for now! the next update will be fast. I promise!

For those who don't remember where the story ended, Sirius just told Lily that she is in love with James and she is freaking out. Sirius and Lily are coming back from their talk by the lake.

**Disclaimer : I don't own Harry Potter but I do own my copy of Casual Vacancy that arrived just today! I'm very very excited about it!**

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When Lily walked into the common room, she was suddenly assaulted by her friends and she tumbled back to regain balance.

"Merlin! Lily, what were you thinking? Do you have any idea how worried we were?" Alice started immediately after releasing Lily.

Vera joined in. "We thought a bunch of Slytherins attacked you when you didn't show up even for dinner. Don't ever do that Lily!"

Lily felt guilty.

"I'm sorry. I was just upset and wasn't thinking straight. I'll tell you all about it when we go up to the dormitory."

Her friends nodded. Lily turned to Sirius.

"Good night Sirius. And thanks for everything."

Sirius just winked at her and smiled.

"I'll head up and see if I can annoy Prongs," he announced and made his towards the stairs leading up the boys dormitories. Lily and her friends made their way to their own dorm and, once inside, huddled around on Alice's bed.

"What happened Lily?" Alice asked.

"I was thinking about asking James to Slughorn's party when he told me he was going with Olivia. I guess hearing him say that, combined with how they were always together today, I just...snapped I guess. I didn't want to talk to anyone so I went down to the lake to clear my head. I had no idea what was going on in my head. And then Sirius found me. Among other things, he told me Olivia asked James out and he said yes."

"I'm sorry Lily," said Mary softly and Alice nodded.

"You all knew, didn't you?" Lily asked.

Her friends fixed her with a questioning look.

"That I love James."

Alice and Mary both gave her hesitant nods, while Vera just rolled her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"We thought you would kill us," Alice stated and Mary nodded solemnly.

Lily chuckled. "Sirius is really reckless if he tried today. He was lucky I was too jealous that I didn't have room for anger."

"So when are you going to tell James how you feel?" Mary asked eagerly.

Lily's smile slid off her face.

"I'm not going to tell him."

"What?! But Lily, how will he know if you don't tell him?" Alice asked.

"He doesn't need to know. He doesn't love me anymore and I'm not going to ruin our friendship with awkwardness."

Alice and Vera both rolled their eyes.

"Don't be an idiot Lily. Of course he still loves you!" Mary said, looking at Lily as if the redhead had lost her mind.

"He is with Olivia now Mary. He has moved on from me just in time for me to fall for him."

"They have just planned a date Lily," Alice said, "Its not set in stone. If he finds out you love him, he will cancel it in a blink of an eye and ride you off into the sunset on his broom."

Now it was lily's turn to roll her eyes. "He said yes to her Alice. Obviously he wants to go out with her. So I'm not going to risk our friendship with all this unrequited love complications"

"It's not unrequited! Come on Lily, the bloke is clearly still in love with you. He doesn't look at anyone the way he looks at you. You are just too bloody oblivious to see it," Vera said, almost shrieking at the end.

"Even Sirius says that. But I don't believe it. Why isn't he asking me out then?"

"Because he is scared of getting rejected," Mary said, "He is apparently as oblivious as you if he hasn't noticed all the mutual flirting that goes on between you two."

"We don't... We don't flirt!" Lily spluttered.

"Oh please, "Alice said, rolling her eyes again, "of course you do. It is so sweet, it's sickening."

Lily blushed. "Maybe I do, but he certainly doesn't flirt back."

"You know Lily, for someone who is at the top of our class, you are incredibly stupid."

"Hey!" Lily said, siriusly offended. **(****A/N : I tried to stop my fingers, I really did!)**

"You have to tell him Lily," Mary said, "He has a right to know. You have to take a chance or you'll regret it."

Lily thought about it. She was scared but she couldn't just hang around James like as if nothing happened. It would probably be awkward for her whether he knows of her feelings or not. So she might as well tell him.

Lily nodded hesitantly. "I will. But not immediately. I'll do it after Slughorn's party."

Alice and Mary both nodded.

"Speaking of which," Lily started, looking at Mary with a wicked glint in her eyes, "I heard you were asked out by a certain Marauder today."

Mary blushed deeply while Alice and Vera started laughing.

"It was so adorable too," Alice said in between laughs, "Remus came up to her after dinner and said 'Mary' and immediately panicked. He stammered a few articulate words, like 'Um...Err...Uhh...' and went red at how much he revealed. Once he realized Mary probably didn't understand, he somehow managed to tell her he wanted to ask her something but then every time he started the question, he panicked again and stopped. Mary here was freaking out inside, expecting him to ask her out so she can scream yes and assault him, but Remus just couldn't finish the sentence. Apparently Sirius had had enough by then so he called out loudly across table, getting everyone's attention in the entire Hall, 'Mary will you please go out with Moony to Slughorn's party before he faints?' "

Lily laughed hard at that. Mary was turning redder by the second while Alice had to take deep breaths to stop laughing. Vera had lost all control and was lying on the bed, her entire body shaking with laughter. When Alice finally had some control over her giggles, she continued.

"Mary was red as an apple and Remus was glaring at Sirius. It was hard to tell whether he was more angry or embarrassed. The whole hall was laughing by then. Even Dumbledore. I swear I heard even McGonagall chuckle once. And suddenly Mary found her Gryffindor courage and shouted across to Sirius 'Tell him I said yes' and grabbed our hands and pulled me to the common room as fast as she could. We could hear everyone in the hall cheering."

Lily was clutching her stomach now. Mary joined their laughter and the four friends forgot about everything and simply laughed. Not knowing what they were laughing about anymore, Lily forgot all about James dating Olivia Smith as she talked and laughed with her friends till midnight. Teasing and talking about Mary's love life and other trivial things made her forget about her jealousy. She could discuss James with her friends light-heartedly and nothing seemed complicated.

After hours of talking, Mary drifted off to sleep and was rudely woken up by Vera shouting in her ear that Remus was there. When Mary startled awake and screamed out 'I didn't steal your scarf just to it, Remus!', they finally agreed they were delirious and decided to call it a night.

When Lily snuck under her covers, she thought of James and smiled. Never once thinking of Olivia, she fell asleep with a picture of James laughing and running his hand through his hair stuck on the back of her eyelids.

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**A/N : **So here it is! i would like to thank FreeElfDobby for being my beta and blame all the mistakes on her :D Let me know what you think! I'll be right here, reading my brand new copy of Casual Vacancy (once I stop freaking out at the mere sight of it of course)


	6. Lightningscar's Every Flavour Snowflakes

**A/N** : Hello again! I hope you haven't given up all hope on me! It's just been crazy with all exams and incomplete assignments that I only just found time to write the story. But it's here now so read on! :)

**Disclaimer** : All I ever wanted for Christmas was Harry Potter. But sadly, Santa still hasn't found my wishlist :(

All mistakes found in this material is the responsibility of my beta FreeElfDobby :P

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Lily and her friends walked into the Great Hall the next morning earlier than usual. The girls were excited on their last day of school before they left for the holidays on Sunday morning. They practically skipped over to their seats at the middle of the long Gryffindor table and started to munch on their toasts with a lot of enthusiasm. The girls had a huge appetite that morning. Lily was half-way through her second glass of pumpkin juice and swallowing the last of her sixth piece of toast when a sleepy James sat down next to her and, laying his head on the table, groaned into it.

"Good morning!" Lily chirped.

Sirius winced from his place opposite to her. James just let out another groan.

"Don't be so happy in the morning Evans," Sirius said, "People might mistake you for an alien."

"Sneaked out again last night?" Vera asked, her mouth full of a blueberry muffin.

Remus nodded.

"I tried to stop them but you know how useless it usually is. So I had to go along to make sure they didn't get into any trouble. It was torture."

"Don't lie Moony!" James sat and exclaimed dramatically, "You know you enjoyed it! I seem to remember that it was your idea too!"

"It's your word against mine, Prongs", Remus gave a sleepy Marauder's grin.

James and Sirius both glared half-heartedly at Remus while Peter started to choke on a piece of toast when he tried to eat it faster that he could swallow.

The girls just shook their heads in amusement at the Marauders' continuous bickering and turned back to the delicious breakfast the elves had prepared for them. As breakfast went by, the Marauders slowly woke up and were more actively annoying and perky like always. Halfway through though, they suddenly stopped talking. Lily saw them exchange looks and knew they were communicating without words. The Head Girl in her became suspicious and she narrowed her eyes at James. James noticed her staring and gave her a lopsided grin.

"What's going on?" Lily demanded.

The Marauders to gestured the girls to look up. They did.

Snow was falling from the enchanted ceiling. It wasn't coming all the way down but stopped quite close to the ceiling like it always did. But as Lily continued to look, they noticed that the number of snowflakes increased. And slowly, so slowly Lily might have almost missed it, the snowflakes started to change color. They were no longer pure white. Each snowflake randomly changed different colors till Lily could see all the colors imaginable, from pale gray to flashing pink, spread across the ceiling. The ceiling looked like the remnants of a war between two armies of rainbows. Lily gasped at the beauty. She wasn't the only one. Many people in the hall started oohing and ahhing as they started to notice the snowflakes.

Just when Lily thought that she couldn't be surprised anymore that day, she noticed that the snowflakes weren't disappearing as they drifted down like they usually did. They were slowly falling closer and closer.

"Taste one," she suddenly felt James whisper into her ear. She ignored the shiver that ran down her spine and waited for a red snowflake that was slowly coming closer. It fell into her open mouth and melted on her tongue. While this wasn't unusual, Lily did not expect the sudden burst of the taste of strawberries on her tongue.

Lily looked at James with surprise in her green eyes and found him smiling widely at her.

"What did you taste?" James eagerly.

"Strawberries," Lily replied, still baffled by what happened.

Even her friends looked surprised after tasting the snowflakes.

"I tasted roast beef!" Vera exclaimed.

"I tasted apples!" Alice joined.

"Pumpkin juice," Mary said, like it was the most astounding thing ever heard of.

Sirius and James grinned at each other in victory. Even Remus looked smug that it was working. The Marauders looked around at Great Hall. The look of surprises on people who tasted the snowflakes soon made everyone taste it and everyone were amazed. James looked up at the teacher's table and saw Dumbledore delightedly tasting one after the other, his blue eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles. All the teachers were fascinated by the colorful snowflakes that had different random tastes. Even McGonagall was too surprised to realize that she should be giving the Marauders a customary glare right about now.

Not all of the snowflakes tasted good though. Some people looked disgusted but even they were soon going back for more.

James looked at Lily, who was laughing and smiling. She caught him looking at her and gave him a brilliant smile, her green eyes almost blinding him with their shine.

"This is brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" she said.

James beamed. "It was all my idea," he said with a wink.

"Bull!" Sirius said, "This idea came into existence all because of me!"

"Do you really want to share how we came up with the idea, Sirius?" Remus asked, smirking at him.

Lily was surprised to see Sirius' cheeks turn pink.

"Now I'm curious! How did you guys get this idea?" Lily asked.

"Don't you dare -" Sirius started but James had already begun telling the story.

"We were getting ready to sleep one night when 'Mr. I'm so Manly' over here decided to admire himself in front of the mirror. This would have been very weird except for the fact that this was Sirius. So when he is doing this, he suddenly exclaims 'I'm fat!' He turns to us and says that if he continues to eat they way he does, he will lose his stunning good looks. Then he remarked how nice it would be to taste anything he wanted without actually eating it. My brilliant mind took it up from there and here we are."

"Nice of you to forget my hours in the library doing research and my excellent hand performing all the spells without which this whole thing would have remained only an idea," Remus said, wearing an offended look.

"Well," Lily said, "All of you are brilliant. This is your best prank yet."

So saying, she let another snowflake melt in her mouth and exclaimed "Oranges!" at Vera, who at the same time said "Ew! Sprouts!"

James loved seeing Lily laughing and smiling like she was. Her hair was disheveled and her cheeks were pink and she looked adorable.

His thoughts were interrupted by the shrill sound of the bell going off. He was pleased to see Lily was disappointed that she had to leave the colorful snow behind.

"Don't worry," James said, "It'll still be there in the afternoon during lunch. Shall we go?"

They both had Double Arithmancy that morning. They were the only ones taking it among their friends. They said good-bye to them and made their way out of the Great Hall.

"You have colorful snow on you," James laughed once they were in a corridor outside the hall.

"So do you," Lily said, chuckling. She stopped and reached up to brush off the snow off his hair. She couldn't help notice how soft his hair felt between her fingers and how close she was standing. Her cheeks turned pink and she withdrew her hands, averting her eyes.

James didn't seem to notice her reaction. They started walking down the corridor again. Half-way through, James suddenly grabbed her hand and walked her right through the wall to their left.

"Shortcut," he explained.

Lily just nodded. She never questioned his knowledge about the castle. She had realized long ago that the Marauders knew the castle better than even Dumbledore. Very soon they were in their arithmancy classroom. They took their usual seats at the back of the classroom.

"Are you going to Slughorn's party tonight?" James asked Lily once they were settled in the seats.

Lily nodded. "I'm going with Sirius."

James looked surprised. "You got Sirius to agree to go with you? How?"

"I just used my sister-in-distress card," Lily said, a smug look on her face.

James looked impressed.

"That explains why he didn't tell me," James said, smirking, "Probably didn't want to admit he was weaker than a girl."

"Probably," Lily laughed, wishing she had the courage to tell him that she was only going with Sirius because she couldn't go with him.

"I heard you are going with Olivia?" Lily asked after a moment of hesitation.

James looked surprised that she knew.

"Sirius told Vera," Lily immediately said, glad that the lies were coming easily today.

"He is such a gossip," James said, "Yes. I am going to the party with her. She said she had been thinking about asking me out for a long time but didn't find the courage to do so till now."

"That's great!" Lily said, hoping her voice wasn't too high, "Do you like her?"

"Yeah, she's nice. She is funny and smart. She seems to like me a lot. I enjoy spending time with her."

"She's very pretty too," Lily said, almost to herself.

"Yes she is. But I thought you didn't like her?" James asked.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked, too quickly, "Why wouldn't I like her?"

"Well...I heard both of don't get along much. And Olivia goes very silent every time your topic comes up."

Lily let out a sigh of relief. So he hadn't figured it out.

"We were never the best of friends," Lily admitted, "We never had anything in common. We are completely different people."

James couldn't agree more. The first thought that had assaulted his mind after he first taught Olivia was how different she was from Lily. But he told himself that's what he needed. He was only ever going to be friends with Lily so he had to move on.

"You might have to start liking her now," James said.

"Why?"

"We are going out again tomorrow to Hogsmeade. We wouldn't want cat fights between one of my best friends and girlfriend, do we?" James said, winking at her.

Thankfully, before she could respond without thinking to him casually referring to Olivia as his girlfriend, the teacher walked into the class.

* * *

Even after the familiarity of sitting next to James for two hours and laughing at all his jokes, Lily still couldn't forget James calling Olivia his girlfriend. But she was grateful that James was so dumb that he was oblivious to her racing thoughts. They walked back towards the Great Hall for lunch, James chattering away like always. In spite of worrying about Olivia, Lily found herself laughing at all of James' silly jokes as usual. No matter how down she felt, James could always lift her spirits instantly without even trying. By the time they reached the doors to the Great Hall, only a part of her mind was on Olivia.

They pushed open the doors to the Great Hall and Lily gasped. The entire Hall was covered with a layer of multi-colored snow. It looked beautiful. It looked like a little kid was let lose in the Hall with crayons.

Even James looked like he didn't expect it to look that good. They slowly stepped in and heard the snow crunch under their shoes.

"This is exactly like real snow except it tastes wonderful!" Lily exclaimed.

They heard Sirius call out to them from the Gryffindor table and waved them over.

"Pretty awesome right?" he asked, once they were seated next to their friends.

"It's beautiful," Vera said, her friends nodding in agreement.

"You guys should do stuff like this more often," Lily said.

James opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a cry of "James!" He turned around and found Olivia smiling down at him. Lily immediately turned away, anger joining her jealousy this time. She was sick of Olivia showing up and stealing James away. Even the other Marauders looked annoyed. But James didn't seem to notice it. He just smiled at her.

"Can I join you?" Olivia asked, smiling sweetly and showing off her perfect teeth. Lily rolled her eyes at this.

"Sure," James said and moved closer to Lily to make room for Olivia. Lily didn't know exactly how she felt about that.

"This is amazing James!" Olivia started once she settled down, gesturing at the snow, "You are a genius for pulling this off!"

"Actually, it was all of us," James corrected, "But thanks anyway."

"You are so modest," Olivia laughed and Lily was very annoyed to see that it didn't sound high-pitched at all. She actually had a nice laugh.

James smiled and asked "Did you need help with your Transfiguration again?"

"Yes, actually," Olivia said, "I tried to do my best without bothering you but I guess I'm used to learning from you now. Would it be terrible to ask you to help me out now? I know you have a free period."

"I would love to," James smiled at her. He picked up his bag, waved bye to his friends and walked away with Olivia. Lily steeled herself to glance at his retreating figure and immediately regretted it when she saw him take her hand in his.

Lily placed her head on Mary's shoulder and groaned.

"Do you want to go back to the Common Room till the next class?" Mary asked sympathetically.

Lily nodded against her shoulder.

"Then let's go. Maybe we can finally start the Potions homework," Alice said and the girls stood up.

"See you guys at Slughorn's party," she told the boys and waved goodbye.

"Bye," the boys chorused.

However, once they reached the Common Room, Lily took one look at the couple who had opted to steady there instead of the library and immediately fled up the stairs, her friends behind her.

She didn't notice a pair of hazel eyes follow her up.

* * *

**A/N** : Well here it is! What do you think? Was it nice? Please please let me know :) Spread the Christmas cheer through reviews! :D :)

I will do my best to put up the next chapter before the world ends on December 21st :P


	7. Cheering Charms Gone Wrong

**A/N :** Hello guys! I know I said I'd update before 21st December, 2012 but, stupid as I am, I didn't realize I was making that promise on 20th December, 2012. But on the bright side, the world didn't end and now you can read this longer than intended chapter! I hope you still want to :)  
In case it's not clear in the story, I'd just like to make the time and space of the story clear (I've become a huge fan of Doctor Who since the last update). This chapter happens on a Friday and in Slughorn's annual Christmas Party. The next day will be the Hogmeade trip and the day after that, the students leave for the Christmas holidays.  
Now on with the story!  
**Disclaimer : If I was as talented and rich as Jo, I'd have enough money to go to the Harry Potter theme park in Florida.**

* * *

Seven o' clock rolled in and people were just beginning to arrive at Slughorn's annual Christmas Party. Lily and her friends walked down the stairs from the dormitory and entered the Common Room to wait for their dates. They sat on the couch by the fire and began to chat idly.

Suddenly they heard a scream and a thumping noise. They immediately turned their heads towards the boys' staircase. They saw the plump form of Peter Pettigrew hitting the floor with a final thump and heard the stifled laughs of his friends.

"Peter!" Lily cried out with concern and ran to help him up, "What happened?"

And to her surprise, Peter started to laugh in reply. Soon, his friends appeared and they too were laughing.

"Have you completely lost your minds?" Lily glared at them, James in particular. No, it wasn't to see if he looked better than usual in his red dress robes. And her heart most certainly did not start beating faster because he did.

"We put a cheering charm on Wormtail," Sirius tittered cheerily, "But I think Moony did something wrong. Because he is finding joy by injuring himself."  
"Just take off the charm then!"

"I have forgotten how to," came a sheepish reply from Remus.

"He's alright, Lily," James said, noticing the irritation in Lily's eyes, "We are keeping an eye on him."

"You should be taking him to the hospital wing," said Lily, "Not amusing yourself with his antics."

Lily was going to continue her scolding but she was interrupted by Peter. He ran past behind her, pushing her into James' arms on the way, towards the chocolates he noticed in Vera's hands.

Everyone except Lily burst out laughing as Peter tripped on the carpet and fell face down again. Lily extracted herself from James' arms, her cheeks flaming red. She went to help Peter up again.

"Sit," she said sternly, pointing at the couch. Peter complied, giggling.

"Stay," came the next order. Peter nodded, another giggle escaping him.

Lily rounded on the boys. They immediately stopped laughing.

"One of you better take him to the hospital wing," she warned.

She saw them look at each other and communicate in that infuriating way that they did, with eyes and hand gestures. From what Lily could see, Sirius and Remus were asking James to do something and James was asking "Why me?" Finally, the conversation ended and James nodded, losing the argument.

Putting on a smile, he turned to Lily.

"Lily," he said, and Lily tried in vain to look away from him, "Can we please, please, keep him like this? Not for long! We promise to take care of him. And it's only for tonight. We'll take him to the hospital wing on the way back from the party. Please?"

Lily knew from the moment he started talking that she had lost the battle. She really needed to work on her strength of will around him.

"Fine!" she conceded, " But only for tonight. And if I see him unattended even for a second, I'll put the same cheering charm on you."

"Thank you!" James beamed. Sirius and Remus cheered. Peter joined in because he wanted to.

"Let's all leave for the party then!" Sirius exclaimed. Everyone nodded and the girls stood up. Remus caught Mary's eye and smiled shyly. Mary smiled back just as shyly.

"I have to wait for Frank," Alice said.

"He's already there," said James, " Slughorn recruited him to decorate. He asked you to meet him there."

James turned to Sirius.

"I'll bring Wormtail with me. You guys go ahead."

Sirius nodded.

"You aren't coming with us?" Lily asked.

"I'm waiting for Olivia. She should be here any minute now. I'll meet you there."

Lily tried not to react to that. She just nodded and turned toward the portrait hole. Her friends were already disappearing through it.

She felt a hand on her wrist as she started toward the portrait.

She spun around and found James standing very close.

He leaned in closer. "You look beautiful," he said, letting go of her hand and smiling down at her.

Lily didn't reply. She just smiled back. Taking Sirius' hand, she turned around and walked out of the Common Room.

* * *

"He's not here yet," Lily said, probably for the hundredth time that evening.

"Stop whining Lily," Sirius said through a mouthful of pumpkin pasties, "He'll be here soon."

"What if they took a detour?" Lily asked in horror. "Or maybe they were attacked? We should go look for him!"

"Who is going to attack him, Lily?" Sirius said, adding another muffin to the mixture in his mouth, "All the Death Eaters are here."

Lily looked disappointed at that. It would have made her feel better to go looking for him.

Lily looked at Sirius, not bothering to be disgusted by how he was stuffing himself, too used to it by now.

"Then maybe she is attacking him?" Lily said, pleased with this thought. Yes, they should definitely go looking for James.

Lily looked at Sirius with her wide eyes and pleaded. But before this could work, Sirius looked over her shoulder.

"He's here," he said, nodding at something behind her.

Lily spun around and saw James enter with Olivia and Peter. A frown was placed firmly on Olivia's perfectly made up face and Lily was pleased to see it. She could hug Peter for ruining whatever moment they had.

When they came closer, Lily noticed a bruise on Peter's head. Concern filled her and she ran towards them.

"What happened to you?" she exclaimed.

'Hi, Lily," he grinned stupidly in reply.

Lily turned to James, a glare firmly in place.

"Don't look at me!" James held up his hands in defense, "I didn't ask him to dance with a suit of armour."

Lily's eyes widened in surprise. "What happened then?"

"The suit of armour didn't like Wormtail's dancing. Obviously, because he's got four left feet," James was trying very hard to hide his laughter and failing miserably.

"Wormtail danced with a suit of armour?" Sirius exclaimed from behind Lily, "And I missed it?"

Lily almost laughed at the look of disappointment Sirius wore.

"Yes, it's such a loss," Olivia said, reminding Lily of her presence, "But now you can look after him so you won't miss anymore of his amusing antics. James promised me a dance."

She grabbed James' hand without waiting for a reply and pulled him towards a clearing where a few people were slowly twirling around to a song.

"I hate her," Lily glared at Olivia.

"Do you think Wormtail would dance again if we took him to a suit of armour?" Sirius asked, watching Peter grab treacle tarts from a nearby table and gorge greedily on it.

* * *

"How long do you think they'll last?" Lily asked, looking gloomily at Peter dancing with himself.

Slughorn had just left them after promising to bring more important people to introduce Lily to.

"I don't know. Can't really say," Sirius replied, "He's seems to like her though. So maybe they won't break up any time soon."

Lily put a whole muffin into her mouth.

"You could always tell him about how you feel. That might change his mind about her."

"Don't be daft, Sirius. He doesn't like me that way anymore."

Sirius opened his mouth to reply. But before he could, Severus Snape materialized in front of them.

"Hi, Lily," he said, not bothering to look at Sirius, who was glaring at him.

Lily looked startled but quickly recovered. Her expression turned cold.

"What do you want?"

She saw a flash of hurt in Snape's cold black eyes but couldn't be sure.

"Can I talk to you alone for a second?" he asked, glaring pointedly at Sirius.

"No. You can say anything you want in front of Sirius."

Lily knew Severus well enough to see him wince slightly at her cold tone. But his expression soon turned completely passive again.  
"Fine," he spat, "I was sent to make an offer."

"An offer? From whom?"

Snape hesitated here. "It's best if we talk in private."

'No," Lily said again, just as firmly.

"Are you going to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas?" Snape asked.

"What's it to you?" Lily was surprised by the question.

"I just wanted to know," Snape replied.

"It's none of your business, Snivellus," Sirius said angrily.

"I didn't ask you, Black. Stay out of it," Snape's black eyes glinted with ill-concealed anger.

Lily placed her hand on Sirius' arm to stop him from retorting.

"Yes. I am. What does it matter to you?" she asked Snape coldly.

Snape turned to Lily and seemed to hesitate before saying softly, "You shouldn't."

"Sorry?"

"You shouldn't," said Snape a little louder, "You should go home to your family."

"Why?"

Snape looked conflicted. "You should," he finally said.

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked, not sure how to react.

"Just listen to me Lily," said Snape, an urgency creeping into his words, "You better go home. Don't stay in the castle."

"Are your Death Eaters friends planning something?" Lily asked sharply.

Snape didn't reply. He just looked at Lily. Lily could see his eyes pleading with her, asking her to listen to him.

"When will you stop?" Lily asked softly after several seconds.

"When will you give up this life you have chosen for yourself?" she continued when Snape didn't reply, "Can't you see what you are doing is wrong?"

"What about you?" Snape suddenly snapped, "Friends with Potter! Didn't you say that you would never like him, let alone tolerate him?"

"That's different! He's good, Severus! A much better man than those murderers you call friends!"

"Is that why he found a more beautiful girl to replace you as soon as you started to love him back?"

Lily looked liked someone just slapped her. Fury bubbled up in Lily's eyes and, before he could realize what was happening, he saw a flash of Lily's and and felt a curse hit his chest. The spell knocked him back but he found his balance quickly. He opened his mouth to retort but nothing came out. Terror filled him.

"Good luck finding someone who can remove that spell," Lily said smugly.

She grabbed Sirius' hand and pulled him towards the other end, away from her now mute ex-best friend.

"What spell was that?" Sirius asked once they stopped at the other end of the room.

"I read about it in one of the books I borrowed from the library," she replied, the smug look still on her face, "He can't speak for the next twelve hours. And after that, he can't do anything but shriek like a banshee for the twelve hours after that."

Sirius looked at her in awe. "Remind me never to cross you."

Lily smiled with self-satisfaction in reply.

"You should join us in some of our pranks," he said, still looking impressed, "You would be invaluable."

Lily opened her mouth to reply but before she said anything, there was a huge crash and the music stopped playing. Everyone went silent at once. Sirius and Lily looked around and saw that everyone was moving towards the corner of the room. Sirius took Lily's hand and pushed through the crowd to see what was happening.

Their eyes widened at the sight in front of them. Peter was standing in front of a huge Christmas tree that had been completely stripped of its decorations and was now fallen on the ground. Peter had been the one to remove all the decorations from the tree while they were having their confrontation with Snape. All Lily could gather from the evidence in front of her was that Peter had been attacked by a sudden desire to turn into a Christmas tree . He wore all the decorations around himself and was now tangled in a web of lights and baubles. He must have tumbled back and knocked down the Christmas tree as he was decorating himself.

Peter looked so ridiculous with the decorations around his huge frame that even Lily couldn't find it in herself to be concerned. A giggle escaped her which soon turned into peals of laughter. Soon the entire room joined in, including Peter.

After a long time, the Marauders stepped forward to help Peter take off the decorations. The laughter died down and everyone slowly went back to what they were doing before. Still laughing, Lily went to help them.

"Hey, you're laughing," James beamed at Lily when she joined them.

"Well, it was very funny," Lily laughed.

"Come on, Wormy," James said once Peter was untangled, "Let's take you to the hospital wing and get you sorted."

"I'll go talk to Slughorn. Make sure we don't get into too much trouble over this," said Remus.

Sirius, James and Lily pulled a giggling Peter behind them and started towards the door. But they were interrupted by Olivia half-way through.

"Where are you going?" she asked James.

"I'm sorry," replied James, "I have to take Wormtail to the hospital wing before he seriously injures himself."

Lily expected Olivia to become irritated and was counting on it. But she was surprised when Olivia just nodded understandingly.  
"When will I see you tomorrow?" she asked, looking up at James through long eyelashes.

"I'll be waiting in the Common Room at around ten," James smiled at her.

She gave him a small smile. She stepped forward, stood on her toes, and kissed his cheek. Turning around, she left with a final wave over her shoulder.

Lily looked away and tried not to think about what she just saw. She had known that Olivia was James' date to tomorrow's Hosmeade trip, but now, with the day so close, she felt more hurt about it. The thought of James and Olivia being happy together did not sit well with her.

I have to do something about their date, she thought, as they stepped out into the corridor and Peter let out a high-pitched giggle.

* * *

**A/N :** Well here it is! I hope it was good and not too long! Please please leave a review after you read it!  
And I would like to thank each and everyone who left a review or added the story to their favourites. I'm sorry I couldn't reply to each of your reviews but that doesn't mean your love was unappreciated :)  
Thank you, FreeElfDobby, for correcting my typos. Any uncorrected ones are on you :P


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